Cherokee chef Don McClellan speaks to judges during an Iron Chef-style competition July 24 at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. McClellan created two appetizers, three entrees and two desserts for the competition. COURTESY PHOTO

Cherokee chef competes in Iron Chef-style competition

Cherokee chef Don McClellan prepares a dish during an Iron Chef-style competition July 24 at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. McClellan lost the competition by one point. COURTESY PHOTO

BY
WILL CHAVEZ Senior Reporter

07/29/2011 07:07 AM

TAHLEQUAH, Okla. – Cherokee Nation citizen and chef Don McClellan stepped out of his comfort zone July 24 to compete in an Iron Chef-style competition as part of the 2011 “Living Earth Festival” at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian.

The annual Washington, D.C, festival celebrates Native contributions to protecting the environment, promoting sustainability and using indigenous plants for health and nutrition.

McClellan, 34, originally of Nowata, said he was invited to compete by his mother Carolyn McClellan, who is the NMAI assistant director of community and constituent services.

“With my education and experience, she thought it would be a great opportunity for me to come to D.C. and showcase all my talent,” McClellan said.

His competition was Chef Richard Hetzler, the executive chef for the NMAI’s Mitsitam Café, who won the 2010 inaugural competition.

McClellen has been a chef for 17 years and is the executive chef at Atria Vista del Rio in Albuquerque, N.M. He describes his dishes as “flavorful New Mexican.”

He said he prefers to keep his preparations simple and flavorful and that his Southwestern style meshed well with the competition’s ingredients of corn, beans and squash – the traditional “Three Sisters” among Native farmers.

He said having worked with the main ingredients for the past six years as a chef in Albuquerque prepared him the competition. He also said he was able to use the derivatives of corn, beans and squashes in addition to the actual ingredients.

“I can use squash blossoms as opposed to using zucchini or yellow squash…Corn tortillas would constitute use of the corn,” he said before the competition. “It’s going to be challenging for the simple fact that corns, beans and squash have to be in each dish.”

For the competition, each chef and his assistants had to prepare two appetizers, three entrees and two desserts using the main ingredients. They also had fresh salmon, duck and buffalo meat available.

McClellan said creating dessert pastries is not one of his strengths and that he was concerned about his desserts. To prepare for the competition, he said he ate New Mexican-style food, read cookbooks and studied various ways “the Three Sisters” can be prepared.

He said one of the strengths he brought to the competition was his ability to flavor foods to make them multi-dimensional in taste. He takes pride, he said, in flavoring and seasoning food so that his customers don’t feel the need to flavor it after it reaches their tables.

The competition was judged on taste, color and presentation and included a time limit. The chefs had one hour for prep work and one hour to prepare their dishes before serving.

The competition was held in the museum’s outdoor amphitheater, and McClellan said during the competition the temperature was around 102 degrees, with a heat index of about 115 degrees.

He said he knew he had to focus in the heat and “cook with his heart” and that he was capable of winning because he had a good menu.

“It’s an opportunity I don’t want to walk away from and say, ‘oh well, I could have done this or I should have done this.’ I want to leave it all out there in the competition,” he said.

Judgment was handed down by a group of local chefs. The panel consisted of Scott Drewno, executive chef at “The Source by Wolfgang Puck” and last year’s Washington, D.C., Chef of the Year; Brian Patterson, Hetzler’s opponent from 2010; and Pati Jinich, executive chef at D.C.’s Mexican Cultural Institute and host of the cooking show “Pati’s Mexican Table.”

A report from the competition states McClellan was the crowd favorite. However, he lost by one point, 629-628.

McClellan said he “loved the competition,” networking and getting out of his “comfort zone” and believes it will help his career.

He said it was a learning experience and that it confirmed he could keep up with the “big boys.”

“I know that I can cook, and I’ve been doing it for a long time. People love my food,” he said.

About the Author

Will lives in Tahlequah, Okla., but calls Marble City, Okla., his hometown. He is Cherokee and San Felipe Pueblo and grew up learning the Cherokee language, traditions and culture from his Cherokee mother and family. He also appreciates his father’s Pueblo culture and when possible attends annual traditional dances held on the San Felipe Reservation near Albuquerque, N.M.
He enjoys studying and writing about Cherokee history and culture and writing stories about Cherokee veterans. For Will, the most enjoyable part of writing for the Cherokee Phoenix is having the opportunity to meet Cherokee people from all walks of life.
He earned a mass communications degree in 1993 from Northeastern State University with minors in marketing and psychology. He is a member of the Native American Journalists Association.
Will has worked in the newspaper and public relations field for 20 years. He has performed public relations work for the Cherokee Nation and has been a reporter and a photographer for the Cherokee Phoenix for more than 18 years.

BRIDGETON, N.J. (AP) – A Native American group is suing New Jersey officials to demand it be recognized by the state government.
The Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribal Nation filed a federal civil rights suit on July 20 saying that not having recognition hurts its members psychologically and financially.
The group, which is based in Bridgeton, traces its history in the area back 12,000 years and says it now has 3,000 members - the majority of them living in the state. New Jersey made the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape its third recognized tribe with a legislative resolution in 1982.
But the group says that’s now at risk because of a report the state submitted to the federal government in 2012 that said New Jersey had not recognized tribes – a change that could also affect the Powhatan-Renape Nation and the Ramapough Mountain Indians, which also had been designated by the state.
Gregory Werkheiser, a lawyer for the group, said some state officials became nervous more than a decade ago about the possibility of recognized tribes trying to develop casinos. But Werkheiser said the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Nation has no interest in that, a position spelled out in the group’s constitution. And even if it did, he said, it would take federal recognition – awhich can take decades to secure - for that to happen.
The state status is important to the group because, without recognition, it says, its members cannot sell crafts including beadwork, walking sticks, drums, headdresses, regalia, and pottery as “Indian made,” an issue that could cost more than $250,000 a year.
Werkheiser said the group’s artisans – many of them senior citizens – have already seen their income take a major hit from that.
And the group says it could lose $600,000 in grants, tribal jobs and scholarships that are tied to its designation as a recognized tribe.
“State recognition of a tribe has little to no impact on a state budget, except that it may provide tribes access to certain federal benefits that save the state from spending its own dollars,” the group contends in the suit.
The state government has not responded to the claims in court.
The state Assembly passed a bill in 2011 on procedures for recognizing tribes, but the measure never received a vote in the Senate.
A spokesman for John Hoffman, the state acting attorney general, did not immediately return an email seeking comment. The office generally does not talk with reporters about lawsuits it faces.

NEW YORK – After a dozen of Native American actors felt insulted and walked off the set of Adam Sandler’s “The Ridiculous Six” in April, the movie actor recently told the Associated Press the movie is a “pro-Indian” movie.
“I talked to some of the actors on the set who were there and let them know that the intention of the movie is 100 percent to just make a funny movie,” Sandler said. “It’s really about American Indians being good to my character and about their family and just being good people. There’s no mocking of American Indians at all in the movie. It’s a pro-Indian movie. So hopefully when people see it — whoever was offended on set and walked out, I hope they realize that, and that’s it. It was kind of taken out of context.”
“The Ridiculous Six,” which is scheduled to be released worldwide via Netflex in December, is Sandler’s first production for a multi-move deal he signed with movie-giant Netflix. “The Ridiculous Six” is intended to be a parody to the 1960 “The Magnificent Seven” Hollywood-western.
While the Native actors walked off the set, many other Native American actors did stay and continued to work on the production.
The actors who walked off the set said they were upset with the demeaning portrayal of Native women and how the movie producers were insensitive to tribal usage of feathers.
“At first I was glad to be part of the movie because it is about Apaches, who are like cousins to us, but then I noticed things were not right about how Apaches were depicted,” said Loren Anthony, Navajo. “For one thing, the costumes we were given to wear were more like what plains Indians wear, not Apache. Then the way feathers were desecrated on the set made me sick to the stomach, literally. I was brought up by my elders to respect feathers. The move crew paid no respect to the feathers.”
Back in April, Netflex said, “the movie has ridiculous in the title for a reason: because it is ridiculous. It is a broad satire of Western movies and the stereotypes they popularized, featuring a diverse cast that is not only part of but in on the joke.”

LOS ANGELES – Native Voices is seeking short plays that address the many ways a Native American family forms and functions.
Native Voices at the Autry is the only Equity theater company devoted exclusively to developing and producing new works for the stage by Native American, Alaska Native and First Nations playwrights.
Plays may be a celebration of family life or an examination of complexities and issues in Native families. Alternately, plays may dramatize traditional family stories or family histories. A reading panel of nationally recognized theater artists and community members will evaluate short plays that are related to the family theme.
Selected plays will be presented as staged readings on Nov. 8, as part of the Autry’s annual American Indian Arts Marketplace. A panel of celebrity judges will select the 2015 Von Marie Atchley Award for Excellence in Playwriting, a $1,000 cash prize.
For more information and submission details, visit <a href="http://www.TheAutry.org/NativeVoices" target="_blank">TheAutry.org/NativeVoices</a>.

TAHLEQUAH, Okla. –The Dream Theatre 312 N. Muskogee Ave., will host the Tribal Film Festival on Sept. 4-5.
Film festival officials are calling for “indigenous films with inspiring and uplifting stories that change people’s lives.”
The films must be indigenous stories, but filmmakers do not have to be of tribal backgrounds. All videos that are selected will be shown at the red carpet premiere event at the Dream Theatre and the ‘best of’ prizes will also be announced at the event.
The winning submissions will also be featured on the TFF’s Facebook page, Twitter newsfeed and in the TFF’s trailer reel, which will play at the Cherokee Heritage Center in Park Hill during the 2015 Cherokee National Holiday.
According to the TFF’s website, each submission will be eligible for distribution on TribalTV, which is a new broadband channel.
Those who are submitting their work must own the content or have the rights to submit the film. Films that contain pornography or ultra-violent material will not be considered.
Short films must be less than 20 minutes, which includes the credits. Films that are more that 20 minutes will be entered into the feature film category.
The official submission deadline is July 29 with a $20 entry fee. The late submission deadline is Aug. 15 and will cost $30.
Digital submissions can be entered at filmfreeway.com and hardcopies can be mailed to P.O. Box 581507 Tulsa, Oklahoma 74158-1507.
For more information, visit <a href="http://www.tribalfilmfestival.com" target="_blank">www.tribalfilmfestival.com</a>.

BRIGGS, Okla. – The Cherokee Nation’s Community and Cultural Outreach has found a way to help CN citizens and local community members learn more about the Cherokee culture with its Cultural Enlightenment Series.
The series is held the second Tuesday of each month, and in July it took place at the TRI Community Association W.E.B. Building (Welling, Eldon and Briggs) in Briggs. Those attending watched participants play Cherokee marbles, weave baskets and perform other family and culture-friendly activities.
CCO Director Rob Daugherty said this is just one of the many communities his department reaches out to within the tribe’s 14-county jurisdiction.
“This is one of the buildings that we helped start fund along with other departments of the Cherokee Nation,” he said. “In our jurisdiction area we have several of these building and we work with approximately 38 community buildings that we have. We work with way more communities than that, but this is one of them.”
Daugherty, who watched the marble games, said he’s glad the community has taken up the sport.
“We’re real proud of this organization here in that they started doing this marbles. (They) picked up one of the old games, and now Cherokee Nation’s coming out here and hosting tournaments,” he said. “The good thing about this game is it doesn’t matter how old you are. It doesn’t matte what size you are. It doesn’t matter what level of skill. This is a game that you’re pretty well even starting out. It looks like it’s a games of just haphazardly movements, but there’s a strategy to this game. They’re playing teams, and you can tell among themselves they’re talking where to move, who to hit, where to sit and so forth.”
Daugherty said it is also important to use the Cherokee language in the Cultural Enlightenment Series.
“Language is really big in my department, so one of the things that I have suggested is no matter what you do incorporate Cherokee language in there,” he said.
John Sellers, TRI Community W.E.B. Association president, said he was glad to have the CN come to the building to show community members Cherokee culture.
“We attend classes about once a month at the (Cherokee) Nation’s complex and they saw our facilities and they were talking about the old traditional marble games, and we’ve been asking questions about the rules, how you do it. So they come out here to show us and they said, ‘hey, we’ll just have our regular monthly meeting out here and do that,’” he said. “Then, at the same time we got a call and said they had a lady that wanted to do the basket weaving and I said, ‘bring her on.’”
Sellers said he is thankful to the CN for all it has done for the community.
“I can’t say enough for Cherokee Nation,” he said. “I mean we couldn’t do what we’re doing if it wasn’t for them.”
For more information about the Cultural Enlightenment Series, visit <a href="http://www.facebook.com/CNCCO" target="_blank">www.facebook.com/CNCCO</a>.